Kai on Extended

Josh Bennett

When the best player to ever touch the cards sounds off on a format, people listen. Kai Budde and his squad of testers decoded the metagame, and heading into the weekend, the best deck was blue-black Reanimator.

Budde says it like that, too. "It's the best deck." As if there's nothing more to explain. He eventually went on "It has the best matchups of any deck we tested." Unfortunately, though Budde chose to run Reanimator, the story doesn't end there. Though Reanimator is the best deck, this is the first time in a long while that the field has anticipated the best deck. "There's just too much hate."

When he says hate, he means it. Coffin Purge has started showing up in the main. The spot removal of choice is Diabolic Edict. Unsummon appears almost randomly. All the way up to Sligh decks packing Gilded Drake. Thursday night the dealers had sold out of Drakes, tipping Budde off to the dangers ahead. Multani, Maro Sorcerer, a card he had dismissed as marginal, came back into the deck because he needed an untargettable monster.

Budde closed the day at 4-3, he chances at Day 2 crushed when Ben Rubin refused the draw and stomped him in two quick games. So if Reanimator is wrong, what's right? Budde is quick to cite The Rock. The results back him up. The two undefeateds, Darwin Kastle and Tomas Krejsa are playing Rock, as are three others at 6-1. If Kai had it all to do over again, you can bet he'd be at the top of the standings, Deeding up a storm.